To:HIS MOTHER

Published:First published in 1929 in the journalProletarskaya RevolyutsiyaNo. 4.

      Sent from Shushenskoye to Moscow.

      Printed from 
 the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 37,

      pages150-154.Translated:The Late George H. HannaTranscription\Markup:D. MorosPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.

February 7, 1898

Yesterday,Mother dearest, I received letters from you
and from all the family dated January 22 and 23 and was
very glad to get them; I send you my thanks for all the
good wishes, I guessed, of course, that you would write
to Nadezhda Konstantinovna and invite her to visit you;
it is to be hoped she will be allowed to. I still know nothing
about her transfer to Shu-shu; she keeps writing that it
will be settled “in a day or two”, but it is still dragging
on. Now, however, we probably shall not have to wait
long for a final decision.

Asto what you should send with N.K.—I think you should
give her a real load of books since we do not know whether
there will be an opportunity in summer. Manyasha intends
going abroad (and that, of course, is a bit more interesting
than Shu-shu and the Siberian mosquitoes), and you will
probably go off to Kokushkino with Mitya.... It’s bad that in
two and a half months he has already begun to look puffy.
First—does he stick to a diet in prison? I suppose not. In
my opinion that is essential. Second—does he do physical
jerks? Probably not, either. Also essential. I can at least
say from my own experience thatevery day, with great
pleasure and profit I did my gymnastics before going to bed. You
loosen up so well at times that it makes you warm even in the
worst cold, when the cell is like an ice-well, and after it
you sleep better, I can recommend to him an exercise that
is very convenient (even if funny)—bow to the ground
50 times. I set myself that stint and was not embarrassed
when the warder watched me through the peephole and wasamazed that a prisoner who had never expressed a desire
to attend the prison church should suddenly have become
so pious! He must bow not less than fifty times without
bending his legs and must touch the floor with his fingers
each time. Tell him that. Most of these doctors, you know,
only talk about hygiene.

Ihave already written something about clothes. I do
not need any underclothes except socks. As for the local
tailors, I do not place much hope in them. It is very
inconvenient to get clothes made in Minusinsk; one has to go
there. There is a tailor here who makes clothes for
everybody (he told me so today), including former political
exiles, even for all the priests (he boasted to me of that).
Although it all sounds very impressive, you had better buy
ready-made clothes in Moscow and give the material you
have to Mitya or Mark. One thing I do ask you for in
particular—a pair of moleskins, because I tear my clothes
terribly when I am out shooting. If my straw hat is still
in good shape (it’s a Paris hat, after all, the devil take it!)
she should bring it. Prominsky, as a matter of fact, has
begun making hats (sometimes they look like felt boots!)
but they are suitable only for spring and autumn and not
for summer. The only other thing is—kid gloves, if they
can be bought without knowing the size (which I doubt).
I have never worn them, either in St. Petersburg or Paris,
but I want to try them in Shu-shu-shu in summer as a
protection against mosquitoes. I can wear a net over my head
but my hands get badly bitten. Gleb assures me that the
local mosquitoes bite through gloves but I do not believe
him. The gloves have to be suitably chosen, of course, not for
dances but for mosquitoes. Then I need some paper,ruled
in squares; I do not suppose there is any in
Minusinsk—anyway I do not need much, about four quires with squares of
different sizes from the smallest to the largest.

Anyutaasks when the wedding is to be and who we are
“inviting”! Isn’t she in a hurry! First of all Nadezhda
Konstantinovna has to get here, and then we have to get
permission from the authorities to marry—we are people
without any rights at all. So how can I do any “inviting”?

Asfar as concernsverbalismeandphraséologieit seems
to me that they should be translated as verbalism (with anexplanation) and phraseology.... That, of course, is not
really translation but simply transcription, but what else
can you do? “Dilettantism” is quite wrong for verbalism—
almost the opposite, in fact. Verbalism is probably closer
to scholasticism, i.e., to superfluous (pseudo) learnedness,
than to dilettantism. But I don’t remember exactly how
Labriola uses these words.

Mercifor Bogdanov. I have read half of it. Very
interesting and to the point. I am thinking of writing a
review.[2]

Inreply to Manyasha’s questions: what sort of voice
has Gleb? Hm, hm! I suppose it must be baritone. He sings
the things that Mark and I used to “bawl”
(as Nanny[3]used to say).

Thenext question—will Paris go to her head? Very like-
ly. She has now seen for herself what it is like abroad
and can, judge. I lived only one month in Paris, did very
little work and spent most of the time running round to
see the “sights”. It is not clear to me either whether
Manyasha wants to go to study or for the summer only.

Thanksto Mark for his letter. He must not, however,
forget Gogol’s
“Ivan Andreiches”.[4]I do not know what
progress has been made in Russia, but here in Siberia they
are doubtlessly flourishing, and they are interested in other
things besides knowing whether a government official is
arriving and whether the young ladies are on the way.

Iam surprised that you have not even heard aboutSyn
Otechestva. I saw inRusskaya Mysl[5]today (the issue of
November or December 1897) that the newspaper declares
itself a Narodnik organpur
sang.[1]

Thereal cold has now arrived, so we have given up
shooting and only go for walks—in the forest, though. My
lodgings are warm, however, and my clothes still warmer.

Manyashashould send Nadezhda Konstantinovna the list
of books I should like to have—she will look for them in
St. Petersburg, if, of course, it is not too late by now.

Ifwe have any other children’s picture books let N.K.
bring them for Prominsky’s children.

A.Semyonov.Obzor istoricheskikh svedenii o
promyshlennosti i torgovle. Three volumes. An old book, published in
the fifties or sixties, or even earlier.

Sborniksvedenii i materialov po vedomstvu Ministerstva
finansov. St. Petersburg, 1865, No. 6.

1866,No.4 and No. 5.

1867,No.6(June) especially.

Materialypo opisaniyu promyslov Vyatskoi gubernii. Five
issues. Vyatka, 1880 (Manyasha already has the second
issue).

Vasilenko.Promysly selskogo naseleniya Poltavskoi
gubernii.

Svodsvedenii ob ekonomicheskom polozhenii selskogo
naseleniya Yevropeiskoi Rossii. St. Petersburg, 1894. Published
by the Office of the Committee of Ministers.

Shcherbina.Ekonomicheskiye otnosheniya v raione
Vladikavkazskoi zheleznoi dorogi.

Bezobrazov.Narodnoye khozyaistvo Rossii.

Trudyobshchestva selskikh khozyayev yuzhnoi Rossii(those issues for 1895 that carried articles by Mr?? Perhaps
Borinevich?... on suburban farms near Odessa).

Ragozin.Zhelezo i ugol na yuge Rossii.

Mendeleyev.Tolkovy tarif.

YuridicheskyVestnik, 1887, Nos. 11 and 12.

Lyudogovsky....(?Osnovy selskokhozyaistvennoi
ekonomii? or something like it. I do not remember the exact title.
A book published in the 70s.)

Statisticaltables compiled in the Statistical Division
of the Council of the Ministry of the Interior according
to the data of 1849-52.

Statisticheskyvremennik Rossiiskoi imperii. Series I,
Issue 1, St. Petersburg, 1866.

VremennikTsentralnogo statisticheskogo komiteta. 1894,
No. 34 (average grain and potato harvest for 1882-92).

VremennikTsentralnogo statisticheskogo komiteta. 1889,
Nos. 10 and 12.

VremennikTsentralnogo statisticheskogo komiteta. The
issue for 1897 (one of the last issues) which carried the
processed data of the army-horse census of1893-94.

(Seethe catalogue or the list of publications of the Central
Statistical Committee.)

[1]Genuine(Fr.).—Ed.

[2]Lenin’sreview of A. Bogdanov’s bookKratky kurs ekonomicheskoi
nauki, 1897, was written in February 1898 and published in the
April number ofMir Bozhy(The Wide World). (SeeCollected
Works, Vol. 4, pp. 46–54.)

[3]TheNanny referred to was Varvara  Grigoryevna Sarbatova,
a peasant woman from Penza Gubernia who was Nanny in the
Ulyanov family for almost twenty years.

[4]ByIvan Andreich (as in Letter No. 29) Lenin means Ivan
Kuzmich, the postmaster in Gogol’s comedyThe Inspector-Generalwho was fond of opening other people’s letters. Lenin apparently
wanted to warn Mark Yelizarov of the need for greater caution in
his correspondence.

[5]RusskayaMysl(Russian   Thought)—a   literary and  political
monthly published in Moscow from 1880 to 1918; up to 1905 it
held liberal Narodnik views. In the nineties it sometimes
published articles by Marxists. After the 1905 Revolution it became
an organ of the Right wing of the Cadet Party.